Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

I took a few shortcuts in making these cupcakes but since I had extra time from the shortcuts, I played around with homemade frosting and drizzled chocolate decor!

I bought a box of chocolate cake mix and while mixing it added 1/3 cup raspberry jam and a little extra cocoa powder; maybe 1/4 cup.  They baked nicely.

For the frosting, I followed this recipe from the Food Network:

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream ( I threw in some leftover cool whip with this)

Once this was mixed, I added raspberry jam to the bowl, 1 TBSP at a time, mixing thoroughly. A total of 4 TBSP went into the batch. It was such a gorgeous color! And licking the spoon was heavenly! I couldn't wait to top the cupcake with this frosting!


While the cupcakes were baking, I melting a little chocolate in the microwave and using a knife, I drizzled it onto waxed paper. I really had no idea how this was going to turn out so I just did circles and swirls. It all dried within minutes right there on the counter and I could easily peel them off. The outcome was perfect! It was Mother's Day, so I gave one to our our upstairs neighbor who is a mom and grandma and shared them with a friends over dinner together.  Who knew "gourmet" cupcakes could be so easy!?!?!